Central Park Zoo Chronicles
by radredknuxfan
Summary: What kind of antics do the animals of the Central Park Zoo engage in when the humans aren't looking? This is essentially a series of stories that detail life around the zoo for the animals, with the focus of each story on one of the main animals from the show, rotating with each chapter. This is also my first Penguins of Madagascar fic, so don't be too hard. Please R&R! Thanks!
1. Chapter 1

I think it's time to attempt my first Penguins of Madagascar story. While I'm not the biggest fan of the show, I do really like the humor as well as all of the interactions between the characters. It kind of makes me wish that it wasn't on Nickelodeon (a network I've stopped watching cause of the high concentration of bad shows to good shows), cause I'd really like to watch it more.

Anyhoo, I didn't want to go too ambitious for my first one, with me not being as experienced with this as with Regular Show (which you should go to my profile to read), so I decided to just do a simple life around the zoo fic, but with the focus of the story rotating around each of the characters each chapter. I won't reveal the actual order so you guys can be surprised, but do know the penguins will be split up (meaning there will be a chapter focusing on another one of the animals before the next penguin). So let's get it started with…

* * *

**Chapter 1 – Paranoia (Skipper's Story)**

It was nighttime at the zoo, and Skipper and the rest of the penguins have just returned after a rare failed mission, which involved having to retrieve King Julien's crown, which Mort accidentally dropped down the sewer. While Skipper himself wasn't interested, considering the bad blood between the two of them, but Private and Marlene managed to convince him to do it.

Needless to say, the Rat King beat them to it, and considering how caught off guard they were by his appearance, they got their butts handed to them, and they were forced to retreat.

While the penguins were pretty disappointed at losing out on the crown (having to explain it to Julien was no picnic either), Skipper seemed to be the most distraught.

Being the commander of a team of penguin commandos meant that he had to make sure that his team was ready for absolutely anything that pops up. His near perfect record of successful missions proves that point. But when a mission like the one that they just went through comes up, it makes him feel like he's failed his team.

Skipper sighed, catching Private's attention. The young penguin walked up to his captain and placed a comforting flipper on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, Skipper. I'm sure once we get a plan together; we'll take down the Rat King and get that crown back no problem!"

Even though Skipper was still quite shaken from the ordeal, he knew he had to put up a strong front for the team, so he quickly pulled himself together before replying.

"Thank you, Private. It's nice to see that you guys are still keeping your spirits up, even after a defeat like this."

It was at this point that the penguins finally returned to their habitat, and they all hopped down the hatch, except for Skipper, who was staring into space, lost in thought.

Private soon popped his head back out of the hatch, noticing that Skipper did not follow them in.

"Hey Skipper, are you all right?"

"What? Oh yeah, I'll be down in a minute. Tell Kowalski and Rico to head to bed. I want you guys up early for morning exercises."

"Aye aye, Skipper!"

Private saluted as he climbed back down the hatch, but not before giving Skipper one last worried look.

* * *

The next day started like any other. Skipper woke the rest of the team up, and they spent the morning before the zoo opened doing laps around the pool, Skipper pushing them as hard as he could manage. Once they finished, the three of them exited the pool, exhausted. Private and Kowalski sat down to catch their breath, while Rico simply collapsed.

"Come on, you guys! I know you're all tired, but we've got to get ready for the humans' arrival today!"

Private, Kowalski and Rico all got up with a loud groan before heading towards the hatch to get ready for the zoo's opening. But before Skipper could follow them down, Kowalski stopped in his tracks, turning around to face his commander.

"What's wrong, soldier? We don't exactly have the time for idle chit-chat."

"I'm curious, Skipper. We've never done morning exercises before at that kind of intensity. Mind if I ask what the reasoning is behind this sudden increase?"

"That's because we need to be at tip-top shape if we want to take down the Rat King and get Julien's crown back."

"But we only failed because we were caught off guard! If we just had a plan, we definitely wouldn't be having this kind of problem!"

"Even so, Kowalski, the Rat King is no slouch. He was one tough cookie every time we took him on."

Kowalski sighed, about to say something else when Skipper pushed him down the hatch so that the two of them could get ready for the day.

* * *

After the zoo finally closed for the day, the penguins returned to their hideout. Kowalski went into his lab, Rico started spending some time with Mrs. Perky, and Skipper sat down at the table to think.

Private, meanwhile, waddled up to Skipper as he sat down, intending to ask him about the mission.

"Say Skipper, do you think we're ready to get that crown back yet?"

Skipper temporarily glanced to the side before replying.

"Negatory, Private. We're going to need some more training before we're ready."

"Are you sure, Skipper? I mean, we could just have Rico blow something up down in the sewer. I'm sure that would probably convince the Rat King to give the crown back."

Rico, excited after hearing the words 'blow something up' being mentioned, stood up and horked up a stick of dynamite and a match.

"Kaboom?"

Skipper paused, thinking it over for a moment.

"Only as a last resort, Rico."

Rico groaned, disappointed as he sat down and returned to playing with Mrs. Perky.

"Oh, and the answer's still no, Private."

"Awww. I was hoping we could do it. King Julien looks so sad without his crown. Not to mention the fact that I really don't want to see that unsightly bald patch anymore."

* * *

And so it went for the next few days. Skipper wakes them up in the morning, works them to death in morning drills, and yet continues to refuse to authorize the mission.

At this point, it was starting to irritate the other penguins. So, after successfully managing to ditch Skipper, they went over to the otter habitat to visit Marlene, hoping that she can help out.

"Hey guys. How's getting Julien's crown back going?"

Kowalski cleared his throat before replying.

"Hasn't even started, I'm afraid. Skipper refuses to let us go down into the sewers."

"He's been working us like dogs for the past week, and yet he keeps making excuses!" said Private.

"What?!"

Annoyed, Marlene immediately hopped out of her habitat and began making her way to the penguin habitat, intending to give Skipper a piece of her mind.

"Wait, Marlene! I'm sure Skipper has a good reason for holding up the mission!" said Private.

"I don't care what kind of reason he has! Julien has been constantly asking me where his crown was any chance he gets, and it's annoying me to no end."

Private opened his beak to say something else, but decided against it, instead following Marlene while Rico and Kowalski tried to keep up.

When they returned to the penguin habitat, Marlene was about ready to barge in and start asking questions, when she was suddenly hit with an idea.

"Hey Rico, do you happen to have any rope?"

The weapons expert was confused, wondering what Marlene would want with rope.

"Uh…why?"

"I just want to make sure Skipper doesn't try to run out on us."

Finally understanding, Rico nodded happily before horking up a length of rope, pulling out the remaining length that didn't already come out.

Grabbing the rope, Marlene quietly made her way down the hatch, the other three penguins following close behind. Thankfully, Skipper was still there, so they all snuck up behind him, but he noticed, dodging the attempt at a tackle by Marlene.

The penguins and Marlene spent the next few minutes trying to keep Skipper down so that they could tie him up, but the commander was putting up a good fight. Eventually, Rico managed to take him down, chuckling while the rest of them hogtied Skipper.

"What is the meaning of this insubordination?"

As Skipper lied on the floor fuming, his flippers and feet tied together, Marlene decided to take the initiative on asking the questions.

"Would you mind explaining to me why you haven't done anything about getting King Julien's crown back?"

Skipper sighed, really not wanting to have to explain it again.

"They're not ready yet. Once I feel they're ready, then we'll go."

"After a week of high-intensity training, I feel that our preparedness is more than adequate, Skipper. What's the real reason?" asked Kowalski.

The three penguins and Marlene looked at Skipper angrily. Rico even horked up a pocket knife and opened it up, brandishing it to look more intimidating.

Finally, Skipper sighed in defeat, realizing he wasn't going to win this battle.

"I'm sorry, you guys. I held you back because I was scared of letting you guys down again. I guess I let my paranoid tendencies get the best of me there."

The others noticeably softened after hearing Skipper's apology. Private was the first to speak.

"That's alright, Skipper. You know what Princess Self-Respectra always says…"

The room fell silent, waiting for Private's quote. But it didn't come, as Private was lost in thought, trying to think of his answer.

"What? What did she say?" asked Skipper.

"You know what? I honestly can't think of anything that Princess Self-Respectra would say in this kind of situation."

Everyone groaned, before Kowalski decided to explain.

"Look, I think what Private was trying to say is that even if we fail a hundred more missions, it's not going to make us think any less of you as our commander, Skipper."

Skipper smiled as he looked around at everyone.

"Thanks, you guys. I'm glad to hear it. Anyhoo, if you all are okay with it, I think we have a date with the Rat King."

Everyone cheered before heading towards the hatch.

"Hey, would someone please untie me?!" yelled Skipper.

"Whoops." said Rico, nervously chuckling as he cut the rope with the pocket knife. Skipper then stood up and dusted himself off.

"Alright, people. Move out!"

* * *

Down in the sewers, the penguins and Marlene were creeping along, keeping an eye out for any sign of the Rat King. Eventually, they did find him inside his throne room, the crown sitting next to him as he was making a speech to the rest of the rats.

They immediately pressed up against the wall, before Skipper began making a series of hand signals. Private was confused at first, before realizing that it was the exact same series of hand signals he made himself during their mission at the Winky Factory.

Before he realized it, Rico and Kowalski were already gone, so he was forced to slide along quickly to catch up to them.

Skipper, meanwhile, beckoned for Marlene to come closer so that he could whisper in her ear.

"While the guys are distracting everyone, you and I are going to sneak up and take the crown."

"Gotcha, Skipper."

Skipper then quickly checked around the area to make sure no one was looking before darting around the corner and hiding in the darkness, Marlene following close behind.

Eventually, they made it to where it was a straight shot to the throne, and Skipper signaled across the way to where Rico, Kowalski, and Private were. The three of them walked out and began hula dancing, catching the attention of all of the rats, as well as the king, who immediately got up and started walking over to see what was going on.

This gave Skipper and Marlene their chance. They began slowly creeping their way over to the throne, making sure no one was looking. Eventually, they reached the throne, and Skipper reached out, almost managing to grab the crown when the Rat King turned around and noticed them.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"Rico! Kowalski! Private! Attack Formation!"

The four of them immediately jumped together, and went to work, taking down all of the rats like they were nothing. Even Marlene managed to get in on the action some, taking down a few of the rats herself.

Eventually, it was down to just them and the Rat King. Said king chuckled as he cracked his knuckles.

"Well, it seems like you guys didn't get enough of a beating the first time around. Let me show you the true meaning of pain!"

The Rat King then charged, but the penguins all dodged away. They began trading blows, but no one really began to get the advantage until the Rat King suddenly dropped to one knee.

"He's getting tired! Take him down!" yelled Skipper.

Rico immediately charged forward, jumping off of the ground and getting the Rat King in the chest with a flying headbutt, sending him down for the count. The penguins and Marlene traded high fives in celebration.

"Nice work, fellas. Let's get that crown and get out of here."

However, once Private went ahead and grabbed the crown, the Rat King and all of the rats got back up.

"Where do you think you're going with that?"

The Rat King looked at the five of them menacingly as he slowly made his way towards them.

"Rico! Smokescreen!"

Rico did as he was asked, horking up a smoke bomb and setting it off. Skipper grabbed Marlene's hand as the smoke began covering the area, and the group made their escape.

* * *

After returning to the zoo, the penguins and Marlene first went over to the lemur habitat to return the crown.

Once they reached it, they found Julien still sulking, while Maurice and Mort were busy trying to cheer him up. However, Julien was pretty much ignoring the both of them, especially Mort, as it was his fault that the crown went missing in the first place.

"Oh looky here, it is the penguins who can't get de crown back for me! So what? Do you have more bad news for de king?" asked Julien.

Rather than reply, Private pulled out said crown from behind his back. Julien's eyes lit up, and he immediately ran over and grabbed the crown, placing it back on his head.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! I don't know what I would be doing without the crown. It would almost be like I wasn't the king anymore!"

"No problemo, Ringtail. Just try not to drop it down the sewer again. This was the second time we had to get that crown back, and I'm really not interested in getting it a third time." said Skipper.

"Oh, don't you be worrying about dat, my friend. I will be making sure dat this crown never leaves my head again."

Julien accentuated his promise with a glare at Mort.

"I'm sorry, my liege! Can you ever forgive me?" asked Mort, tearing up.

"I don't know. I might be needing some more worshipping to be able to forgive you."

"Oh, I can do that!"

Mort immediately got to his knees and began bowing vigorously to King Julien.

"Yay, I'm so loyal!"

Maurice rolled his eyes before turning towards the penguins.

"Look, thanks for bringing his crown back, you guys. Hopefully this means King Julien will stop being so sulky all the time."

"We're glad to help, Maurice." said Private.

"Anyway, we should probably get going. We all need to get ourselves cleaned up." said Skipper.

Rico decided to illustrate that point by sniffing his armpit.

"Blech!"

The penguins and Marlene left the lemur habitat and went their separate ways, with Marlene returning to her habitat, and the penguins returning home.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for the delay since last chapter. I've been sick, so I haven't really had any energy to write, especially with school starting up again.

* * *

**Chapter 2 – Replacement (Marlene's Story)**

It was another normal morning at the zoo. Everyone was just waking up, except for the penguins who were already up and doing their morning exercises. But our story is taking place a few feet away at the Asian Otter exhibit, where Marlene was taking a nice swim, trying to wake up so she can prepare for performing for the humans today.

Marlene poked her head out of the water, breathing a sigh of relief as she climbed back onto solid ground, when she suddenly noticed Alice walking towards her habitat, carrying a small cage similar to what pets would be put into when traveling.

"Hmm…wonder what this is about?" she thought to herself as she walked over to the fence.

As Alice came closer, Marlene noticed that she looked rather surly today, no doubt not liking the fact that she had another mouth to feed, especially with the zoo's budget being stretched thin as it was. She reached over the fence and placed the cage on the ground, opening the door to reveal another otter that looks a lot like her, except for the fact that it was white.

As Alice closed the cage and lifted it back out of the habitat, she decided to say a few words to lighten the mood before leaving.

"Have fun, you two."

Alice soon left, and Marlene walked up to the newcomer, curiously looking her over for a moment before holding out her paw.

"Hi! My name's Marlene. What's yours?"

The newcomer returned the handshake as she started speaking.

"Nice to meet you. The name's Arlene."

Marlene suddenly became a lot less cheerful and a lot more weirded out at the eerie resemblance to her during that time when her fur was bleached white. All she was really hoping for was that she wouldn't have to deal with any more lovey-dovey stuff.

"Hey, listen Arlene, I'll be right back. I need to go visit the penguins for a moment."

"Ooh, can I come with you? I'd love to get to know some of the other guys around the zoo."

Marlene wasn't really enthusiastic about the idea, considering she really wanted to spend some time away from the somewhat creepy newcomer, but she decided that some time together couldn't hurt. Maybe she might end up forming a different impression about her!

"Alright, I don't see why not."

The two of them hopped over the fence and made their way over to the penguin habitat.

* * *

The penguins were preparing for the zoo to open for the day, when the two otters came down the hatch into their HQ.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" asked Marlene.

Skipper was about to answer, when he noticed the fact that there were two of them there.

"Kowalski? Am I seeing double, or is there a second otter standing in front of us?"

Kowalski turned around, wondering what Skipper was talking about, when he also noticed Arlene. He walked over and took a look at the newcomer, making sure that she was in fact real.

"I do not believe you are seeing double, Skipper. There is in fact two of them."

Skipper decided to see for himself whether Arlene was real or not, but as he took a look at her, his expression softened as he suddenly remembered something important.

"Hey, I remember you! Where have you been all my life, Arlene?"

Arlene looked at Skipper, confused.

"Excuse me? I don't think that we've ever met before."

Skipper was crushed after hearing that.

"Why do you have to break my heart like that, Arlene? What did I do wrong?"

Marlene rolled her eyes and got in between them.

"Uh, Skipper? You do realize that that was me with my fur bleached white, remember?"

Skipper was suddenly embarrassed, having forgotten about that one incident.

"How do you know my name, anyway? I don't remember ever telling you guys." said Arlene.

"It's a long story." said Kowalski, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Anyway, what brings you down here, Marlene? You do know that the zoo opens pretty soon, right?"

"Oh, I just came down here to introduce you to Arlene. She just came in this morning."

Private's head popped up, no doubt interested to hear about the newcomer. He walked over to where Arlene was before speaking up.

"Where did you come from, Arlene?"

"Oh, uh…Chicago. Yeah, I came from Chicago."

Skipper instantly became suspicious after noticing how long it took for Arlene to answer that question, but Kowalski was the one who spoke up.

"Curious. I didn't know that the Chicago Zoo had arctic minks."

"Well, it was only for a short time, so I'm sure it probably wouldn't have been brought to your attention."

Arlene put on a fake-looking smile, hoping to deflect any suspicion. It ended up working for everyone except Skipper, whose paranoid tendencies prevented him from believing her. But he decided to wait before making any accusations so he could hopefully figure out what she was up to.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Arlene. Now if you'll excuse us, we have to get ready for when the humans show up."

Skipper shooed them towards the ladder before returning to the rest of his team.

As Marlene and Arlene made their way back to their habitat, Arlene decided to voice a concern she had.

"Are those guys okay?"

Marlene scoffed before replying.

"Don't worry. You'll get used to them."

* * *

After the zoo closed for the day, the penguins headed down to their HQ for some R&R time. Before Skipper could head down the hatch, he noticed Alice walking towards their habitat talking on the phone, so he immediately reacted, jumping down into the hatch, but remaining near the top of the ladder so that he could listen in.

"Look sir, the new otter we got today is really stretching our budget thin here. I mean, with the amount of animals we have already, it's getting more difficult feeding them all, especially with the attendance dropping. We might have to ship one of the otters out to cut costs!"

Skipper was shocked. He climbed down the rest of the ladder after replacing the hatch before addressing the rest of the team.

"Men, we have ourselves a problem. The zoo doesn't have enough money to handle the amount of animals we have now, so they're planning on shipping Marlene out of here!"

Both Private and Rico gasped, not expecting to hear something like that. Kowalski, meanwhile, kept a cool head.

"Now Skipper, Marlene is one of the more popular attractions at the zoo. What makes you think that she's going to be the one shipped out?"

"Because I specifically heard Alice mention the otters and shipping out in the same sentence!"

"Well that seems kind of silly to me, but if she said it, I suppose it might be true."

"What are we going to do, Skippah? Marlene's our best friend! We can't let her be shipped off halfway across the country!" said Private.

"That's easy. We're going to make sure that Arlene is the one that ends up in that box."

"Aww, I was actually beginning to like Arlene." said Private, disappointed.

Skipper gave Private a look before turning to address Kowalski.

"Kowalski, options!"

Kowalski immediately pulled out his notebook and started drawing pictures.

"Well, we could go to Alice's office and switch the records around so that Marlene isn't the one being shipped off."

"Good plan, Kowalski. Anything else?"

"If that plan fails, we can always help Marlene become more popular so that there's more of a reason to keep her."

"Alright, that will be our Plan B. You ready, men?"

Private, Rico and Kowalski all nodded.

"Commence Operation: Doppleganger!"

* * *

The penguins reached Alice's office a little while later. They stacked on top of each other so that they could check to see if Alice was inside. Thankfully she wasn't, so Skipper opened up the window, and the penguins slipped inside.

Once they were inside, Rico and Private started performing lookout duties, while Skipper and Kowalski dealt with the computer.

Minutes passed as Kowalski skimmed through the list of shipments, which was making Skipper nervous.

"Come on, Kowalski, we don't have all day!"

"I'm trying, Skipper! I can't exactly help the fact that I can't read!"

A few seconds later, though, Kowalski did manage to find what he was looking for.

"Ah ha! I found it!"

Suddenly, Rico started babbling randomly. Private immediately went over to where Rico was standing and saw what the weapons specialist was looking at.

"Skippah! Alice at 12:00!"

"How close is she?"

"She's walking pretty fast!"

"Abort mission!"

Kowalski stopped what he was doing and repositioned the computer to where it was before. After that was done, the penguins headed back through the window and closed it behind them, thankfully avoiding being spotted by Alice.

* * *

With the failure of Plan A, the penguins were forced to go to Plan B, so they went over to the otter habitat to find Marlene and Arlene hanging out.

"Hey guys, what's up?" asked Marlene.

"Can we talk to you for a moment, Marlene? Preferably alone?" asked Skipper.

Marlene gave them a weird look, but she followed them away from Arlene, but the arctic mink completely ignored Skipper's request, following as closely to the rest of the group as she could while not being spotted.

"Alright, so what do you guys need to talk to me about?"

"I'm afraid we have some bad news, Marlene. They're looking to ship you out of the zoo and Arlene's planning on replacing you!"

Marlene paused for a second, considering what Skipper just said.

"Mind giving me some proof? I mean, I'd like to believe you, but there have been a lot of times when I believe what you're saying and it ends up with something going horribly wrong."

Skipper really wanted to admit the truth about why this was happening, but his military-trained mind prevented him from doing it.

"I'm afraid the details are classified, but they shouldn't matter! None of us want you to leave, and the only way that'll happen is if Arlene goes in your place."

"Look, I appreciate your concern, but Arlene and I are really hitting it off. I'm sure we're going to be the best of friends, and no one's going to be shipped off anywhere."

"Wait, Marlene!"

Marlene didn't listen, though. Instead, she turned around and headed back towards her habitat.

Skipper sighed, letting his flipper drop to his side. Kowalski walked up to his side.

"So, are we aborting Plan B then, Skipper?"

"No Kowalski, it'll go on as planned. We're just going to have to do this more discreetly."

"But how are we going to help Marlene become more popular and not blow our cover?" asked Private.

"We're just going to have to do our sabotage in advance, then."

* * *

And so they did, sneaking over to the otter habitat while Marlene and Arlene were asleep and setting up many different things that would hopefully ruin Arlene's credibility and drop her increasing popularity that she earned over the past few days.

The next day soon came along like normal. The zoo opened for the day and Marlene and Arlene popped out into the main area of their habitat to entertain the guests. Unfortunately for Arlene, Skipper studied her performance closely, so he knew exactly where she would be going and when.

Things went wrong almost immediately, though, as the first thing Arlene tripped was a paint bucket, which dumped brown paint on Arlene, which Skipper noticed. After mentally face palming, he leaned over to speak to Rico while still keeping up the cute and cuddly act.

"Rico, why did you put brown paint into the bucket? Now we can't tell the two of them apart!"

"Uh…I 'unno." said Rico, shrugging.

Skipper sighed, thinking that this was going to get much tougher to deal with.

A few minutes later, Alice came up to the otter exhibit, leading a tour group. She started explaining about the arctic mink that just came in recently, with her back to the exhibit, when one of the guests spoke up.

"Uh, which one's the arctic mink?"

"Excuse me?" asked Alice, looking slightly perturbed at the interruption.

"Those two otters look pretty similar."

Confused, Alice turned around and finally saw the penguin's handiwork. Thankfully, though, the paint bucket was well hidden, and the paint splatter on the ground wasn't noticeable.

"What in the world?"

Alice immediately hopped over the barricade and lowered the plank, crossing over it to where the two otters were.

As she looked at the two of them, she finally noticed the paint on the ground and bent down to observe.

"Hmm…paint. Must be one of those vandals again. Don't worry, I'll get you cleaned up."

But she suddenly realized that she couldn't tell the two of them apart. Somehow Rico managed to find the exact shade of brown that Marlene was, and by sheer luck it covered only the parts where it was brown.

"Oh god… this isn't going to be as simple as I thought."

* * *

After the zoo closed for the day, Marlene and Arlene were both taken to the animal care clinic so that they can figure out who was who. Unfortunately, there ended up being a lot of people there, so the penguins were unable to visit them.

But once all of the humans cleared out having given up for the moment, the penguins took their chance, breaking into the room and flipping up to where the two otters were in cages.

"Skipper, what's going on? Why was there a bucket of paint set to drop on us?" asked one of the otters.

"Well, we were trying to engage in a little democratic sabotage, but Rico here messed things up royally."

Skipper punctuated that last sentence with a glare in Rico's direction, to which the psychotic penguin responded with a nervous chuckle.

"Anyway, it was supposed to only be between the four of us, but we were trying to get Marlene more popular with the humans so the zoo overlords don't ship her off to god knows where."

Both of the otters were furious after hearing Skipper's confession. Marlene wasn't happy that the penguins went behind her back even after she refused to go against Arlene, while Arlene's reason was pretty obvious.

As the two otters started chewing Skipper out (the commander firing back when he could), Kowalski suddenly cleared his throat, silencing the three arguing animals.

"Can I help you with something, Kowalski?" asked Skipper with a tone of annoyance in his voice.

"I think it would be better for us to quit arguing for the moment and try and figure out which of the otters is the real Marlene so we can get out of here before the humans come back."

"Good idea, Kowalski. Rico, give me a light."

Rico regurgitated a flashlight and handed it over to Skipper, who flipped it on and immediately pointed it at the two otters. The one on the left gave him a stern look, but the other one froze, looking nervously at Skipper.

"To make this quick, I'm going to give you one question and one question only. And this is something only someone who's been at the Central Park Zoo for a long time would know. Name me as many of the other animals in this zoo as you can. The one on the left can go first."

The one on the left began listing the names of the animals, almost making it look effortless. But when she got near the end, she stopped.

"Sorry, can't quite remember the last few."

"No problem, you did quite well."

Skipper turned to the otter on the right and asked her to do the same thing. She also began pretty well, but quickly began faltering.

"Um…Rhonda, Clemson, Savio…"

"Wait, why are you listing the animals from Hoboken?" asked Skipper, suddenly suspicious.

The otter froze, realizing that she's blown her cover.

"Hmm, it looks like we've found Arlene, and she's also a grade-A liar! She's not from Chicago. She's from Hoboken!" said Kowalski.

"Rico, on top of the cage!" said Skipper.

Rico hopped up on top of the cage, catching the flashlight as Skipper tossed it to him and shining it down on Arlene, making it look like an old-fashioned interrogation.

"Tell me what your plan was, Arlene. Does this have something to do with Dr. Blowhole?"

Finally realizing she wasn't going to be able to hide it anymore, Arlene dropped the act.

"Fine, you want to know the plan? Blowhole was planning on replacing the animals in your dumb zoo with animals from Hoboken. Then, once everyone's been replaced, they were going to converge on you four and finally eliminate you! But now that the cat's out of the bag, we're going to have to work overtime."

"Kind of a shame. I'd love to see the look on his face when he realizes his plan's been ruined." said Skipper nonchalantly.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" asked Arlene.

* * *

Arlene's question was answered a while later as she was quickly stuffed into a crate and shipped back off to Hoboken with a note attached to the box letting Blowhole know that they were aware of his plans.

The evil dolphin did make a few more attempts to replace animals, but the penguins stopped them every time.

A few days after the last failed attempt, the penguins were lounging around after another day of performing when Marlene zipped over from her habitat, landing on the fake ice floe.

"Hey guys, I just wanted to apologize for not trusting you about that whole Arlene incident. I guess I was just happy to have a friend of my own species to have around."

"Don't worry about it, Marlene. We were happy to help you out." said Private.

"That is part of our job description. Always help anyone in need, even if it is Ringtail." said Skipper.

Rico nodded, agreeing with Skipper's assessment.

"Thanks you guys. Anyway, see you all later."

Marlene hopped back over the fence, happy that even if it wasn't another otter, she still had awesome friends.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3- Winky (Private's Story)**

It was another normal day in New York City, and the penguins were off on a snack run, as they had just run out of stock this morning.

So as they reached Bailey's Snackatarium, the penguins grabbed the soda barrels that they use for storage and split up, both pairs hiding behind each of the barrels as they rolled inside. Once they reached the counter, Rico knocked out the cashier, and they rolled the barrels back into the store, filling them with whatever they could find.

The only one not collecting snacks was Private, as his attention was occupied by something interesting on one of the shelves.

Skipper looked up from where he was busy collecting snacks and found the young penguin standing there, his beak agape. Immediately, he walked over, intending to confront him about the delay.

"What's the hold up, Private? We don't exactly have all the time in the world here!"

This snapped Private out of his stupor, but instead of replying, he simply pointed his flipper at the top shelf. Skipper looked up, and what he saw was something he never thought he would see again.

"What in the world?"

On the shelf were five boxes of Peanut Butter Winkies, and Private was just about ready to climb up and grab them, when he was grabbed from behind by Skipper.

"Hold your horses, Private. I want to make sure that we're not walking into a trap. Kowalski, front and center, soldier!"

The analyst did as he was commanded, and rushed over to where Skipper and Private were, standing at attention.

"Go take a look at those Peanut Butter Winkies on the top shelf, and make sure there's nothing that's going to blow up in our face when we take them out of here."

"Peanut Butter Winkies? I'm quite positive that they closed the factory a few months ago."

"Well, those boxes on the top shelf seem to say otherwise. Now get moving, Kowalski!"

As Kowalski climbed his way up the shelf, one thought crossed his mind.

"I don't understand. Why is it that months after the factory closed, there are still boxes being sold?"

As if to answer Kowalski's question, the television near the counter suddenly flipped on as the clerk woke up, showing the news on screen. Ace news anchor Chuck Charles was just introducing himself when there was a breaking news alert.

"We have some breaking news today. Let's go live to the Wally Winky factory for the story."

The picture then changed to Chuck standing once again in front of the Wally Winky factory.

"This is Chuck Charles, here with some good news for fans of Peanut Butter Winkies and Marsh Meow-Meows. A few minutes ago, Wally Winky himself held a press conference announcing that the factory will be reopened and his products will be returning to stores, but only for a single day. When asked about the incredibly short timeframe, Wally said, quote, 'Because I like messing with people's heads, and limiting production to one day will really get them going.' A strange answer, but nothing new from the eccentric owner. This is Chuck Charles, reporting live from the Winky Factory. Back to you in the studio."

As the picture returned to Chuck in the studio, Private turned towards Skipper.

"I don't understand, Skippah. Why would he only open the factory for one day?"

"What do you expect? The man's crazy. He barely even comes out of the factory!" said Skipper.

Skipper paused for a few seconds, before looking up at the top shelf where the Winkies were.

"Kowalski, what's the status on the Winkies? We're running out of time!"

Kowalski looked out from behind the boxes.

"I've performed all of the tests that I could think of. There's no sign of any tampering with these boxes."

"Well then, what are you waiting for? Push them down here so we can get out of here!"

Kowalski was just about to do that when the front doors suddenly slammed open, and a parade of footfalls that felt almost like an earthquake started coming closer to their position.

"We've got company! Everyone move!" yelled Skipper over the commotion.

Private, Rico and Skipper cleared out of the aisle as quickly as they could while pushing the soda barrels along with them. Kowalski, meanwhile, couldn't go anywhere, so he quickly looked around the shelf he was on and found a dark corner, almost flinging his tiny body into the corner so that he could hide from the ensuing rush.

It was chaos for the next few seconds as a large crowd of people ran back to the candy aisle, cleared out all of the Winky products and immediately left. As soon as the crowd left, the penguins returned to the aisle, with Kowalski breathing heavily and Private looking at the empty shelves in disappointment.

"What are we going to do now, Skippah? This is our only chance to stock up on Winkies before they're gone forever, for real this time!"

"I think we'd better go with the sure thing, Private. Kowalski, options!"

Kowalski had only just rejoined the rest of the team from climbing down the shelf, but he immediately pulled out his notebook and furiously scribbled some pictures.

"We could go to the factory again. No humans that aren't employed by the factory are allowed in, so we can easily sneak in and grab some boxes."

"Oh no. That is not happening, Kowalski. Don't you remember Rico nearly eating you?"

Kowalski gave an involuntary shiver while Rico chuckled nervously.

"I was hoping never to be reminded of that. Disgusting."

Kowalski fell silent for a few seconds as he tried to forget about that ordeal, before Skipper cleared his throat and signaled for him to continue.

"Oh, right. Sorry, Skipper. The only other reasonable option we have is to go to some other stores and hope that they haven't been cleared out already."

"But there's no telling if all of the stores in the city haven't been cleared out already!" said Private, as he started to panic. Thankfully, Skipper was there to slap him and calm him down.

"Thanks, Skippah. I needed that."

"No problem, Private. Anyway, we're not going to find out if there's any left just standing here. Let's move out!"

The penguins pushed the barrels up to the counter.

"Rico, you know what to do." said Skipper.

Rico did as he was asked, regurgitating a smoke bomb and quickly setting down the payment for their snacks. But before he could return to the rest of the team, his eyes caught something pink and marshmallowy behind the counter.

"Ooohhh…Meow Meow…"

Thankfully, the penguins invested in smoke bombs that lasted longer than before, so the weapons expert had some time to grab the candy and uppercut the clerk, knocking him out once again so he wouldn't notice them leaving.

As Rico made his way back to the team, he quickly snuck the package of Marsh Meow-Meows into one of the barrels and joined the rest of the penguins as they pushed them out the door.

* * *

After returning to the zoo to drop off their haul for the day, the penguins jumped into the car and drove off looking for any stores that had Winkies left.

Unfortunately, they had no luck, as either they were already gone or they were scooped up by a crowd of people not long after they arrive.

The constant failure was starting to wear on Skipper's nerves, so after giving up and returning to the zoo, Private decided that he needed to do something to cheer Skipper up.

However, not even a second after they returned to their HQ, Skipper sat down at the table and began scribbling some drawings on some paper that was near.

"Nobody bother me. I'm going to try and think of some other plans that we can use to get those Winkies."

Kowalski opened his beak, intending to ask why he's suddenly decided to go with making up plans on his own, but Skipper silenced him with a glare before returning to his work.

An hour passed, as Rico, Private and Kowalski attempted to relax and watch television, but their worry over Skipper who still hasn't come up with an alternative plan, combined with the news report that was on recently letting the public know that the Winky factory would close for good in three hours prevented them from being able to completely enjoy it.

Having had enough, Private decided to try and convince Skipper to go for their original plan of going to the factory, so he got up from his seat and was about to walk over to give Skipper a piece of his mind when he was stopped by a flipper on the shoulder from Kowalski.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Private? Skipper doesn't like to be bothered when he's working like that."

"Yeah I'm sure, K'walski! We're not getting anywhere just letting Skippah do his own thing. Besides, you heard what Chuck Charles said. There's only three hours left before the factory closes for good!"

Kowalski sighed before relenting and letting Private go. The young penguin walked over to where his commanding officer was angrily crumbling up yet another unusable plan and throwing it over his shoulder, where it ended up hitting Private on the head before landing on the floor.

"Permission to make a suggestion, Skippah?"

"Denied, Private. Now please leave me alone. I can't think when I'm being bothered."

Private was about to turn around and head back to the TV, but he quickly changed his mind, realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere by being timid.

"I'm sorry for being out of line, Skippah, but I think you really need to hear this!"

Skipper sighed in defeat before looking up at the young penguin.

"Make it quick, Private."

"Oh! Um…why don't we try going to the factory to find some Winkies? Besides, it's not like we have much of a choice at this point."

"I thought I made it perfectly clear that the factory was out of the question. Isn't that right, Kowalski?" said Skipper.

"Crystal, sir." said Kowalski from where he was sitting.

Private quickly racked his brain trying to come up with something to convince Skipper to try the factory. Soon enough, something came to him.

"But Skippah, the only reason our first trip to the factory failed was because I wasn't ready to lead. I'm sure that with you in charge, we'll get some Winkies no problem!"

Skipper opened his beak to counter, but realized that he had nothing.

"You're right, Private. I forgot about that part."

"So are we going to the factory?"

"Yes we are, Private. Yes we are."

Skipper turned towards Kowalski and Rico, who were still plopped in front of the television.

"Kowalski! Rico! We're headed out to the Winky factory! Let's move! Double time!"

The two penguins immediately hopped up to their feet and saluted before climbing up the ladder and going through the hatch, Private and Skipper following close behind them.

* * *

With Rico's manic driving, they managed to make it to the Winky factory with an hour to spare. Rico parked the car in a bush across the street so that no one would see it, before the penguins hopped out and slid over to the front door, hiding against the wall next to them. Skipper then opened the door, and the other three penguins slid in with the leader following behind them.

When they finally got inside the factory, they were surprised to find that all of the machines were still running despite there being only an hour left before shutdown. It was almost like the factory never closed, if you leave out the presence of spider webs and other things that show the factory's disuse.

As the penguins made their way through the factory in search of the Winky stash, Rico suddenly veered off to the side, having noticed the production line for the Marsh Meow-Meows. Thankfully, Skipper noticed the crazed penguin walking off and stopped the search.

"Where are you going, soldier? We're on a time limit!"

But when he saw Rico's planned destination, his quickly shouted out his orders to the other two penguins.

"Kowalski! Private! Restrain him before he gets to the Marsh Meow-Meows!"

The two of them immediately leapt into action, sliding over to where Rico was and tackling him to the ground. But Rico wasn't going to go down without a fight if it meant getting more than just the package he swiped from the Snackatarium.

So, he tried his best to throw off Kowalski and Private, but their combined weight was too much for even him, so all he could do was desperately crawl towards the production line.

Unfortunately for him, Skipper had reached the three of them by that point, and he hogtied Rico with a licorice string.

"Sorry, Rico, but I can't risk the mission being jeopardized by your insatiable love for Marsh Meow-Meows."

The weapons expert grumbled, but he knew that he still had the package back at the zoo that somehow none of the other penguins found out about, so not all was lost.

"Alright, men, let's keep moving. Kowalski, you're bringing along Rico."

Kowalski opened his beak to protest getting stuck with Rico duty again, but decided against it, knowing arguing was pretty pointless. So he simply sighed and grabbed Rico, dragging the hefty penguin behind him.

* * *

Shockingly, outside of one incident where Rico broke out of his restraints and tried to go back for the Marsh Meow-Meows, the rest of the search for the Winkies went pretty smoothly. The penguins finally managed to find a large pallet full of boxes of Winkies in the shipping department.

"Wow, the last shipment of Winkies ever made! I can't believe that we've finally found some!" said Private giddily.

"Settle down, Private. We just need to worry about how we're going to get these out of here and back to the zoo. Any ideas, Kowalski?"

"We could fly these out of here. We'd just need a helicopter and a cable to lift all of these."

"And how much would that cost us?" asked Skipper, eyebrow raised.

"Around…three million dollars."

"Let's try going for something a little more in our price range this time, Kowalski."

The analyst thought for a moment before giving out his next idea.

"I've spotted a few trucks while we were walking through the factory. We could steal one of them and drive the Winkies back to the zoo."

Skipper considered the possibility for a second before responding.

"Not the most subtle way to transport these, but I suppose that's the best way we've got. Does anyone know how to drive a stick shift?"

None of the penguins raised their flippers.

"I guess this means we're just going to have to wing it, then."

Before Skipper could give his next orders, the pallet of Winkies was suddenly lifted off of the ground.

"Wait, where's it going?" asked Private.

"Doesn't matter. Just follow that forklift!" said Skipper.

The penguins immediately dropped on to their bellies and gave chase. However, the forklift began pulling away, reaching one of the trucks and placing the Winkies inside.

Knowing that they weren't going to catch up in time, Skipper frantically looked around the area for any way they could prevent the truck from leaving. His eyes eventually landed on a control booth and he turned towards Kowalski.

"Kowalski, head for that control booth and find anything that can prevent that truck from leaving, pronto!"

"Right away, Skipper!"

Kowalski veered off towards the control booth as the other penguins continued to try to catch up with the truck.

Once the analyst entered the booth, he hopped up on to the control panel and quickly looked around all of the buttons, trying to find what he was looking for. However, the lack of any words on the buttons made it pretty much impossible to tell which was which, so he slammed his flipper on the first button he saw and hoped for the best.

Nothing happened for the first few seconds after Kowalski hit the button, but suddenly a loud siren started blaring around the factory and a voice from the speakers said something that made the analyst's blood run cold.

"Five minutes until self-destruction. Please evacuate the building as quickly as possible. Five minutes until self-destruction."

Not knowing what to do, Kowalski went with the first thing that came to his mind, screaming like a little girl and running away. But before he could get out of the control booth, he was met with an angry Skipper.

"Kowalski, what happened? I thought I told you to stop the truck, not blow the whole building up!"

"I don't know! None of the buttons said what they did!"

"Now we're never going to catch that truck!" said Private, disappointed.

"Truck! Truck!" said Rico, frantically pointing towards the truck, which was miraculously still there with the front door wide open. Most likely the driver had already evacuated.

"It's still there! Come on, you guys, let's go get that truck!" said Private.

"There's no time, Private! We'll be blown to smithereens!" said Kowalski.

"But…the Winkies!"

Private considered going for the truck, but he soon realized that he didn't want to throw his life away just for Winkies. So he turned back towards the rest of the team, his head drooped.

"Let's go, you guys."

"Alright, men, let's move! Double time!" said Skipper.

Thankfully, the shutter door the truck was about to head out of was still open, so the penguins slid their way out and to a safe distance before the factory finally exploded.

"Yay, kaboom!" said Rico, laughing giddily as he took in the destruction and mayhem.

The rest of the penguins weren't so enthusiastic about the factory blowing up, especially Private, who took it the hardest. Skipper walked up to the young penguin and placed a flipper around his shoulders, trying to cheer him up.

"I'm sure they all made it out okay, Private. There's no doubt that one of these days they'll rebuild and maybe they might start making those Peanut Butter Winkies again."

"Really? You think so?"

"Absolutely, Private. Now let's head home."

As the penguins began walking back to the car, one question came to Private's mind.

"Hey Skippah, why would a guy like Wally Winky need a self-destruct button for a candy factory?"

"Must be another one of his crazy fantasies, I guess."

Once Skipper completed that sentence, he suddenly noticed a small dot coming from the sky and rapidly growing bigger, heading straight for the penguins.

"Look out!"

Without questions, the four penguins dived out of the way of the projectile, narrowly missing getting hit by it. Private was the first one to get up and take a look at what the projectile was, and what he saw made his face light up in joy.

It was a box of Peanut Butter Winkies. The cardboard box was smoldering from the fire, but the Winkies themselves look almost good as new, outside of being slightly melted.

"Wow, how did this survive the explosion?"

Rather than wait for an answer, Private immediately grabbed one of the chocolates and opened the wrapper, only for it to be slapped away by Kowalski. Ignoring the glare Private gave him, Kowalski explained why he did that.

"We can't eat these now, Private. We need to find out how these Winkies managed to survive being in an intense heat like the factory was in. Imagine the kind of technology we can create with this breakthrough!"

Private was disappointed to not get to eat any of the Winkies, but he decided he could let it go if it was for the good of the team.

Later, once the penguins returned to the zoo, and Kowalski went into his lab to perform experiments on the Winkies, the rest of the penguins found out on a news report that thankfully there were no casualties in the explosion, which relieved a lot of the pressure that Private was feeling at that point.

So, as they continued watching TV, Private couldn't help a warm fuzzy feeling from appearing in his chest, knowing that he's not only got a team, but three great friends to be with him, and he was alright with that.


End file.
